Book Review pubs.acs.org/OPRD
Green Organic Chemistry in Lecture and Laboratory of Chemical Education and a comprehensive index complete the work. Overall I enjoyed reading this practical book and was pleased to see lots of examples in the chapters (but strangely not in the Appendix) from Organic Process Research & Development. The book is highly recommended to all interested in green chemistry.
Green Organic Chemistry in Lecture and Laboratory. Edited by Andrew P. Dicks. CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group): Boca Raton, FL, 2012, 283 + xiii pages, £70.70, ISBN 978-14398-4076-4
T
he principles of green chemistry should be taught to all undergraduates, but most of the available books on green chemistry do not, to my mind, provide the industrial focus, particularly the process chemistry focus, that is necessary. All that has changed with this new book, which, in most chapters, puts an industrial emphasis on the principles of green chemistry. After a rather bland introductory chapter, John Andraos provides an excellent chapter on “Designing a Green Organic Chemistry Lecture Course” maintaining that, to be effective, a new course should be coupled with “Industrial Chemistry” because examples from industry are “rich with opportunities to talk about any of the twelve principles”. At the end of the chapter, Andraos discusses “Synthesis Evaluation for Industrial Compounds” and then provides lots of examples for discussion, some of which are from the patent literature. In the following chapter, “Elimination of Solvents in the Organic Curriculum” by Andrew Dicks, the question of “solvent-free or not solvent-free” is discussed in detail, and both industrial and academic case studies are covered. New reactors which enable operation of solvent-free processes are also mentioned, as is scale-up. Subsequent chapters on “Organic Reactions under Aqueous Conditions” and “Organic Chemistry in Greener Non-aqueous Media” are less industrially focussed but nevertheless well written. A chapter on “Environmentally Friendly Organic Reagents” is, at 30 pages, a little too brief, with only 2 pages on biocatalysis in industry. Since biocatalytic processes are one of the prime ways of “greening” manufacturing processes, I would have expected a comprehensive discussion. An opportunity was also missed to point out the environmental credentials of heterogeneous hydrogenation, particularly if solvent can be recycled or reused. An excellent chapter on “Organic Waste Management & Recycling” has a number of industrial case studies. This is followed by the final chapter on “Greener Reactions under Microwave Heating” which provides practical examples of reactions which could be run in undergraduate laboratories. Many of these microwave-accelerated reactions are carried out in aqueous media; sometimes using phase transfer catalysis. However, the workup of these reactions is not discussed. I think the book would have benefited from some extra chapters: one on “Green Work-Up and Product Isolation”, and the other, a final “Summing Up” looking to the future of green chemistry, making some predictions as to where the subject will be in 10 years time. A useful appendix “The Greener Organic Chemistry Reaction Index”, with most examples coming from the Journal © 2013 American Chemical Society
■
Trevor Laird, Editor AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Published: March 4, 2013 603
dx.doi.org/10.1021/op400044d | Org. Process Res. Dev. 2013, 17, 603−603
